From Pinned to Practice - earring display

Finally, another episode of "From Pinned to Practice"!

I've always had a major earring sensitivity.  Nickel free doesn't cut it, it's gold or white gold only for this girl, which makes for some expensive earrings and not very many of them to choose from.  I even tried stainless steel and sterling silver, to no avail.  One day I emailed a local jewelry maker and asked her if she had any ideas of another material I could use that wouldn't break the bank.  She had two ideas and so I purchased two pairs of earrings from her, hoping one of the options would work.  Turns out, they both did!  The titanium was the best so I decided to stick with that.  I then proceeded to send her all of my cheap earrings and replace the hooks with titanium ones - I was so excited to get them back and have earring options!  But then the problem was - how to display them?!  Especially the longer ones that get a bit tangled if you just throw them in a container.

So, I turned to Pinterest.  And found this.....

and this....

and this....

I was recently out on a girls weekend with my best friend and I had mentioned this idea to her.  With a little bit of prompting by her, along with a generous offer to use her just purchased blue burlap, I picked up a cork board (Hobby Lobby) and 3 charm necklaces (Joanne's Fabric).  When we got back to the hotel we decided to do a bit of crafting!  I asked the guy at the front desk if I could borrow his scissors and we quickly cut the right amount of blue burlap.  When I returned the scissors I thanked him for lending them to me, he thanked me for returning them, and I asked to borrow a stapler!  After completing the project, I returned the stapler and he asked if we needed any paper clips! Ha ha.

When I got home, I mounted it on the wall (came with double sided "tape"), hung up the necklaces with a few tacks, inserted the earring hooks into the chains, and voila!

I love it!

From Pinned to Practice - belt

And the October Dress Project is underway!  Feel free to follow me here to monitor my progress throughout the month.

In today's outfit I tied my belt using the "Classic Knot" from 12 Awesome Ways to Knot a Belt I had pinned a long time ago.  The lighting is bad so you can't really see it here though.

From Pinned to Practice #1

Inspired by my sister's From Pinned to Practice series, I've decided to start doing the same thing.  I, too, have fallen for the lure of Pinterest but have also fallen prey to the same tendency as many others have (tell me I'm not the only one!) - and that is to pin and pin and pin, but never actually try all those wonderful ideas!

I have already tried out a few of them, but I will be determined to try more - hopefully at least one a week.

So, here's the first installment of my rendition of From Pinned to Practice!

And, surprise, surprise - it's a recipe.

Grilled Pork Chops by melskitchencafe.com

INGREDIENTS:
4 boneless pork loin chops
1/4 cup olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon steak seasoning (such as Montreal Steak Seasoning or make your own*)

DIRECTIONS:
Mix olive oil, soy sauce and steak seasoning ingredients in a small bowl and pour into a one-gallon resealable plastic bag. Add the pork chops and set the bag in a baking dish in a way that the pork chops get a healthy dose of the marinade (it may be advantageous to flip the bag over halfway through the marinating time). Marinate in the refrigerator for 3-8 hours (no more than 8). Heat the grill to medium and grill the chops 6-8 minutes per side (depending on how thick they are) until they are no longer pink in the center. Remove the chops from the grill and tent them with foil and allow them to rest for 5-7 minutes. Slice the chops in 1/4 to 3/8 inch slices across the grain and serve.

I tried the recipe exactly as is, and LOVED it! (Well, Nathan did the grilling - he's amazing at it).

Top picture is the original pin, bottom picture is our reality.  

Happy pinning and practicing!